Government Planning Diverse Multipurpose Activity Facility

The Ministry of Culture, youth and sports are moving forward with a multipurpose indoor facility that can be used for various activities such as basketball, volleyball, carnival, theatre and other recreational events. But no construction start date or cost projections have yet been released.

Events such as basketball and carnival activities have often suffered unwanted delays and postponements due to rain and could be remedied by this current facility.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Stanley Knight disclosed that the government has already engaged an architectural firm with the help of their partners from the Republic of China (Taiwan). He said, “The process we have followed is that we followed is that we actually had meetings with different stakeholders.

He noted that all stakeholders had a say as to what will make this facility that could be used for a variety of purposes with some even happening simultaneously. “We have met with stakeholders from carnival, with the persons who run dance companies, theatres and sporting organizations and we got with the designer and fed all of this information in.”

“The concept is a flex centre that can be used for everything from indoor basketball, to a convention centre, to theatrical shows to carnival events to just about everything,” Knight explained.

Knight added the facility will have break out spaces and right they are looking at a maximum capacity of 4000-5000 people housed indoors. “In discussions with the Minister, the goal of that was redefined in terms of we are now not just looking at building a centre but identifying each of the public users spaces within that centre as single units we are currently attempting to design a centre that will have at least 7500 hours of public use on an annual basis.”

Knight continued, “We don’t want to build a facility that people pass and take pictures…we want to make sure that we are building something that when you go at 6:00 am people are there and when you go at 10:00p.m people are there.”

He further explained that the facility will be able to generate income as individuals using a space will have to pay a fee. ”People can rent it. People can not only rent the centre, they should be able to go there and decide we would like to use one of the basketball courts, or a break out dance studio, or a wait room and can use this for two hours each week.”

Knight explained that the idea is to design a centre where a group or individual does not have to find money to rent the entire centre but can just use a specfic space within such as a badmitton court. “I think by setting a target of 7500 hours per year I think the minister has transformed the vision for it from just some place that is there for big things and we are now making it more integrated into the community,” he explained.